The baby cried out, thrashing his limbs as he tried to free his ankle from the dog. The dog, in turn, growled and shook its head as if trying to tear the foot off. It was a horrifying view that made Liu Xing's heart stop. For a moment, his mind and body froze. But while his body was frozen, his eyes caught everything. The blood-drenched baby wore nothing but a tattered cloth around his waist, and he was so thin that his skin seemed stretched taut over his bones. It was a miracle the baby even had the energy to cry out.

The mother of the cursed baby moved first. Seeing the dog dragging her son, she lunged at it. "Y-you! How dare you!"

The dog snapped its head to the side, releasing the baby's ankle, and then lunged toward the mother as if she were a tastier meal. The mother launched a punch that landed squarely on the dog's head, forcing the dog to the ground. The dog growled and tried to attack her ankle, but in a move that surprised even Liu Xing, the woman bit the dog's neck.

He could have helped the woman fend off the dog, but he chose not to. She seemed ferocious enough on her own. She growled, shouted, hit, and bit the dog as if it were her archenemy. Her eyes were red, and her expression was almost monstrous. All this rage was pointed at the dog because it had dared to hurt her baby.

Liu Xing jumped lightly and landed near the baby. Up close, he saw the baby was tiny. He could have covered its face with one palm. Seeing the baby drenched in blood and hearing its cries, he considered what to do. He had several pills that could heal injuries and expel poisons. The problem was, they were pills for a cultivator. He imagined that if he gave one to the baby, he would explode from the inside. There were also several pills given by Yang Suyin, and some of them could be used by mortals. However, he didn't know if any of them could be given to a baby. This meant the only option to save the baby from certain death was to bring him to a nearby doctor, which meant returning to the city.

At that moment, the dog finally gave up. It loosened its bite on her ankle and bolted. The mother spat some blood and fur from her mouth. "That's right. No one can mess with my baby!"

When the woman got up and dusted herself off, she began to walk toward their general position. Liu Xing stood up and stepped to the side. Though her appearance was terrible, she looked surprisingly lively. Even though a dog had just bitten her calf, she walked normally, as if she couldn't feel the wound, which made Liu Xing wonder even more about this cursed mother. She was currently a mortal, one as thin as a pole, yet she had enough energy to run for several hours nonstop. Such a feat was impossible, unless there was something special about her.

She soon arrived in front of the baby and crouched down. Liu Xing expected her to pick up the baby and fuss over it like a normal mother would. She should have been worried about the baby's terrible condition, which would surely result in infected wounds without treatment. Instead, her eyes darkened, and she balled her fists. Then, she shouted, "Why did you let that dog bite you? Do you want to die?!" She slapped the baby across the face.

Liu Xing frowned. The slap created a crisp sound that reverberated through the area, creating an echo so sharp that even the insects in the surrounding forest fell silent. He peered over her shoulder and observed the baby, who stopped crying abruptly. Its eyes stared straight at its mother, a glint of darkness flashing within them, as if harboring the same hatred for her.

"You're a big boy!" her mother screamed. "A little dog like that has no chance to kill you! Why did you let that dog drag you?!"

The woman finally grabbed her son from the ground, but instead of the soft, cautious way of a mother, her grip was so rough that the baby's head jerked back violently. He was afraid its neck would snap. However, the baby grabbed its mother's shoulder so hard that claw marks marred her skin. The beggar woman cursed and said that since he was a big boy, he needed to restrain his power.

"Now, heal your wounds. It's gross!"

The baby shot her a nasty glare before it nodded and closed its eyes. At that moment, Liu Xing knew this duo was far from normal. The beggar was no ordinary mortal, and the baby was far from ordinary. Its size was incredibly small, like a premature infant. However, its eyes already shone with intent and consciousness, as if it already understood the world. Such a baby was not normal, and the first thing that came to his mind was demon possession. However, he knew another trope that fit the baby's condition, a popular one from the web novel world.

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Ambient qi began to swirl around the mother and baby. He had seen such a thing happen before. Usually, the qi would push and pull at the mother, but right now, it was swirling around the baby as if he were the center of an array formation. The blood coating its skin began to evaporate. The bite marks and claw wounds marring its body began to close in real time, as if invisible needles were stitching them shut. A moment later, his pale white skin glittered under the illumination of the ambient qi, until he looked like a shining pearl without a single wound or blemish.

As Liu Xing observed the baby's ankle and noticed no injury remained, the cogs in his mind began to turn, connecting his past knowledge to what was happening before him. This was a baby that looked as if it had just come out of its mother's womb but already had consciousness and understood the world. Moreover, it seemed to have control of ambient qi, something even Liu Xing couldn't do. Hell, he didn't know it was possible. At the Lock Opening realm, he could only control the qi inside his body. At the Core Splitting realm, he could let out qi and control it outside his body. So perhaps at a certain realm, one could control ambient qi. But he couldn't, and this baby could. Moreover, he used random ambient qi to heal himself.

"A reincarnator," he couldn't help but mutter.

It was a popular xianxia trope. Generally, there were two types of people who reincarnated as babies. The first came from Earth, and the second came from another xianxia world. Usually, they were a cultivator in a high realm who had died in some mishap or was betrayed by their trusted person.

Liu Xing rubbed his chin. "There's another type."

Regressor. A trope where a person returned to their own past.

This baby could be any of those three, or perhaps something else entirely. While he still didn't know the truth, he knew for a fact that this was not a normal baby.

Those possibilities, even by the standards of this world, were absurd. The amount of power, control, and qi needed to pull something like that off was mind-boggling. Perhaps even Immortals couldn't reincarnate or regress. However, he knew one example where such an exaggerated thing had happened to someone. Him. He was living proof that the xianxia tropes he knew could be true in this world. He was a transmigrator. His existence could be a sign that other xianxia tropes could happen too.

Suddenly, he remembered Ji Dongyang. He had said there was a disciple in his sect so lucky that he would find gold even when he went to relieve himself. The lucky protagonist was also a staple of xianxia tropes.

As his mind churned with ideas and connections began to form, the cursed mother suddenly smiled. It was a wide, warm smile that seemed entirely out of place on her. Was he wrong? Did this woman care about this baby, after all?

"Good," she nodded. "You're handsome when you're clean. You have a duty, after all. And I need you to be clean to do it. Let's go inside. Let's put some clothes on you."

The woman went inside the hut, rummaged through a small chest, and began to dress the baby. Liu Xing could see that even the baby was surprised by her. Soon, the little baby was wearing old yet clean blue clothes, adorned with patterns of little fish swimming in a blue ocean. She made it wear socks and then put black shoes on its little feet.

"Now, you're handsome. Let's go out again," she said.

She brought him back outside, crouched, and set him on the ground. As soon as she placed him near the door, where the stains of his blood remained, Liu Xing knew that her smile, her soft words, and the gentle hands that had clothed her baby were merely an illusion.

Liu Xing's eyes hardened, his heart began to beat faster, and he clenched his hands. He knew what she intended to do, but he hoped, desperately, that she wouldn't do what he predicted.

But his hope died when she went inside and returned with a knife in her hand. It was merely a kitchen knife. Its tip was blunted, its edge was rough, and parts of the blade were rusted and stained. The wooden handle was almost black. It was a pathetic knife, but it was enough to kill. She held the knife with a wide smile on her face, her eyes shining with madness. Seeing her expression, he realized the woman was truly mentally ill. It was a good thing her baby was not normal. Otherwise, a normal baby would have died long ago.

"Little Yuan, Mother loves you, but you're a burden that I need to cast aside. However, you have a duty to support me. You see, a cultivator saved me. He has a technique that could let me shed your curse. It's a wonderful technique." She raised the knife high in her right hand, its blunted tip pointing right at the baby's chest. "He promised to make me his disciple and teach me his technique, but only if I can pass his test, which is something very, very sad. Little Yuan, I love you, but you need to die for me."

"Goodbye," she said as she plunged the knife down toward her intended target.

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